


The Way Things Work

by fits_in_frames



Category: Firefly
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2008-01-10
Updated: 2008-01-10
Packaged: 2018-01-20 05:21:01
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 717
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1498141
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/fits_in_frames/pseuds/fits_in_frames
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>It's not that Kaylee didn't like Jayne. She liked Jayne just fine.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Way Things Work

**Author's Note:**

> For [](http://noyo88.livejournal.com/profile)[](http://noyo88.livejournal.com/)**noyo88**.

It's not that Kaylee didn't like Jayne. She liked Jayne just fine. He could be intimidating, yes, and a bit stupid, true, but it seemed like they were the only two folks on the boat who understood the nitty-gritties, the gears and the springs--who understood the way things work.

Which is why it was easy to fall for him--the way he wiped his hands on his thighs while dismantling a pistol, the way he spit-shined his knives, the way he bared his teeth when someone interrupted him--she could almost hear what he was thinking, feeling, being. She knew he wasn't picky and knew he wouldn't return any sort of affection, so their unofficial relationship was strictly businesslike--a mutual exchange of physicality, which they both understood better than anyone else they knew. And it worked, for a while, it worked real well.

And then there was Simon.

See, in addition to having an understanding of how people worked (and people are just bits and pieces thrown together like machines), he understood how _she_ worked. He drew her pictures of flowers, wrote her pages of babbling verse, told her things with a little smile or a blinking nod. He was slow and methodical whenever he looked at her, like he was dismantling her body with his eyes and reassembling her to be more efficiently beautiful. She liked that, and Jayne didn't seem to mind that she stopped coming to his bunk (there was less and less eye contact between them, that's all), so she let Simon in, and it worked, too.

But then, a week before her birthday, they stopped at a little spit of a planet, a little nothing floating among the stars, for supplies, and she went out with Captain and Zoe and Jayne and Book because she needed a new wrench--she'd split her old one clear in half when she wrenched it just a little too hard three days ago. They all met at the boat, right on time (even though she hadn't found her wrench), all except for Jayne, who showed up almost too late, a package bulging under the left side of his jacket. Captain raised his eyebrows, Jayne shook his head, Zoe shrugged, and that was that. Kaylee didn't ask.

She knew Inara was planning something for her birthday, something small, something fun, but she'd always liked surprises, so she didn't ask. It was a good party in the mess hall, with Inara pulling out a bottle of something dark and delicious about halfway through. People handed her small gifts throughout the evening--a hair pin from Book, a wrench from Captain ("bought this a while ago," he said, "figured you might need it some day," and kissed her forehead), new soles for her shoes from Wash and Zoe, a little bird carved out of wood from Simon and River (who made it, Simon claimed). Jayne hung in the back until everyone else had gone, then grabbed something from behind a jar and approached her. He unceremoniously thrust the small package at her, and she took it with a smile, tearing gently at the paper. It was about the size and weight of one of the engine coils, but it was far from mechanical.

"I'm not a fancy man," Jayne drawled, looking at the floor, "but I'd be damned if I didn't get you somethin' fancy."

She smoothed her fingers over the cover of the book. " _Leaves of Grass_ ," she cooed. "By Walt Whitman."

"I heard you an' the doctor talkin' about it and then when I saw it in that shop, well, I nearly sold my left foot to get somethin' I don't unnerstand a damn _word_ of."

Kaylee felt a warmth in her chest, something she hadn't felt since she first met him, and without even thinking, she leapt into his arms, wrapping her legs around his waist and nearly strangling him with a hug. Simon called for her from somewhere outside, so she let herself down.

"I love it," she whispered in Jayne's ear, and kissed his cheek.

As she walked away, flipping through the pages, she looked back to see, for the first time in a long time, Jayne smiling. And she knew they'd be okay, because he'd figured out how she worked, too.


End file.
